A peaceful night
by nahesa
Summary: On a nice evening after a hard day of work, Colonel Roy Mustang just wants to have a nice and quiet evening. A young, blond alchemist and a Chimera however have different plans.


A peaceful night

It was a late Saturday evening and nothing seemed to be going on. Colonel Roy Mustang was sitting in his living room and just relaxed. It had been some time since he had actually had the chance to relax like this and he was quite thankful for the peace and quiet for once. It had been a hectic week. They'd had to catch a serial Killer using alchemy and on top of that, there was the current case he and his team were working. People had been getting attacked by some kind of chimera for the pat month now in east city and things had finally gone out of control when just the day before a young man had been killed and practically ripped to pieces.

Roy was just happy, he wasn't the only state alchemist on this case. Since Fullmetal had returned right after they had arrested the serial killer, he had assigned his young subordinate the task of doing all the legwork on this case he was to lazy to do himself. Witness reports had stated that the chimera was about the size of a lion, had scales, sharp teeth and claws as well as a crocodile like head and tail. Some witnesses also stated it had wings, but they weren't yet able to confirm that.

They were about to really get started on the hunt for that beast the next Monday, since they all were wiped out from there former occupations. Ed had been traveling around for weeks and he himself and his team had spent there time solving one of the most brutal serial murder cases in the history of East City. Roy now shoved all these thoughts into the back of his head. He had his free evening and god help him, he was going to relax and have a nice, calm and work free night.

He went to the kitchen to prepare himself a cup of coffee. He grinned when he thought about what his lieutenant would say if she knew he was drinking coffee in the evening. With his coffee filled cup in hand, he went back to his couch and picked up a book on the way. He sat down and after a few minutes, he was completely engrossed in his book.

A few hours later, the clock stroke eleven pm. He was about to put his book away and go to bed, when a knock on his door disturbed his perfectly quiet evening. Roy thought about ignoring it, but then, the knocking resumed and he chose to open the door to at least yell at the idiot, who was stupid enough to disturb him on his fee night. When the door swung open however, he forgot that he was about to yell at someone. In front of him, on his doormat, stood none other then Edward Elric the Fullmetal Alchemist.

What had startled Roy however was not the late appearance of the teen before him, but the fact that the boy was covered in blood

''C-colonel, I c-could… use some h-help…''

Mustang stood frozen for a few seconds and just stared, trying to comprehend the situation ''W-what?''

Before he could do anything else, Ed had taken a step forward. Roy just stepped aside to let the teen into his house. A few seconds later, he found his voice again. ''What happened to you?''

''Chimera'' was the only response he got from his subordinate as said stumbled into his living room. Now, Roy had the chance to take a closer look at Edward. The boys red coat had rips and tears in it that looked suspiciously like claw marks and the material seamed to be damp and a darker shade of red in some places. There was also blood on Ed's face and in his bright golden hair. When he moved again, Roy saw that he was also limping, it looked like his flesh leg had sustained some damage too.

And that was only what he could see. There was no way of knowing just by looking at the teen how bad it really was. He had no clue how deep some of those wounds were or if he had broken any bones. With all the blood on his head there was also the risk of a concussion. Roy was honestly surprised, that Ed had made it this far without passing out from either pain, blood loss or his head injury.

''You Idiot!'' He barked ''Why didn't you go to a hospital or something?''

Ed just looked at him.''Your place was closer'' He murmured and began to sway dangerously.

Roy took Edwards arm and lead him into the kitchen and onto a chair. ''Sit down before you fall down, you look like crap''

''Gee, thanks. Someone's grumpy tonight''

''Shut it Fullmetal, you ruined my perfectly nice evening!''

''Sorry 'bout that''

Roy didn't like the way Ed began to slur his speech. He began taking Edward coat off, before the teen even recognized what was happening, his coat and jacket were gone.

''Hey''

''Be quiet, I'm trying to see how bad you are hurt! Stop moving or I'll be calling an ambulance right now and have them take a look at you instead!'' He knew that threat would get the desired response. Everyone at Eastern Command was well aware of the fact that the Fullmetal Alchemist despised doctors and hospitals with a passion.

As predicted, Ed was now sitting as still as he could and wasn't even complaining when Roy took away his pants, leaving him only in his boxers.

''Stay here and don't you dare move'' he ordered and went to his bathroom to retrieve a first aid kit. He also got a basin filled with hot water. Last, he took out some towels and rags and went back to the kitchen, where Ed was still bleeding all over his floor.

''You still awake there kid?'' he asked with concern. The only response he got was an annoyed groan. ''I'm going to clean you up a bit, alright?'' another groan. He took that as a yes and went to work.

He started with Ed's back. There he found four slashes, most likely inflicted by claws of some sort. They were quite deep, but hadn't hit enough so, to injure anything vital. Other than that and a few bruises, the back seemed fine. He then went to inspect the flesh arm, where he didn't find any major injuries, just a few scrapes and bruises. Next was the head. He had been most worried about that one and now, he was fairly certain that Ed had indeed a concussion. There was a Huge bump on the back of his head and also a pretty deep cut above his right eye. After cleaning the cut and feeling around Ed's head for more injuries, of which he didn't find any, he moved on to the kid's torso. His chest was one mass of bruises and there were a few more claw marks on his left side. Those however weren't too deep, they weren't even bleeding anymore. When he prodded around Ed's ribs, he heard the kid whimper when he got to a particulary dark bruise.

Ed had been quiet for the most time, what had Mustang really impressed. Now however he was concerned. For the kid to voice his pain like that, this must really hurt. ''I think you broke one of your ribs here'' He stated. Ed just grit his teeth and nodded.

Finally, Roy moved on to Edwards right leg. It looked like something had tried, and failed, to bite a piece out of it. He carefully felt around the appendage to make sure nothing was broken and then, when he was sure the bone was indeed intact, he cleaned that one too.

''Listen Fullmetal'' he started ''I'm going to disinfect and bandage your wounds now. Most of them will heal on their own, that bite on your leg however needs stitches, it's too deep to properly heal without them ''. When he failed to get a response, he took a closer look at Ed. The kid seemed to be unconscious. ''Well'' Mustang wondered ''I'm surprised that didn't happen any sooner. At least I can work now without him fighting me on it''.

With that, he took a sterile needle and threat out of his first aid kit and began stitching up Edwards leg. Once he was finished with that, he took out gaze pads, antiseptic and bandages, as well as an ointment for bruises and got to work tending to all those injuries on the child's body right in front of him.

When he finished, he debated putting Ed's clothes back on, bu that thought was immediately dismissed when he saw the state of those garments. They were torn, dirty and soaked in blood. He bend down to pick up Ed and to lay him on the couch. When he lifted the boy however, he nearly buckled under the weight. _Damn, I kn_ _e_ _w Automail was heavy, but this is insane!_ he thought as he carried his unconscious subordinate into his living room and laid him down on the sofa. He draped a blanket over the small body in front of him and then went to clean up the trail of blood, Ed had left while stumbling into his house.

After he finished cleaning, he sat down in an armchair and watched the boy on his couch. He noticed how small and fragile Edward looked like this, unconscious and covert in bandages. Roy asked himself if it would have been better to take the kid straight to a hospital, but a very protective part of him didn't want to make the situation any harder on Ed then it already was ''Damn, I'm getting soft'' he muttered under his breath. ''If he gets worse, he'll be going to the hospital, but for now I'll let him sleep''.

A few minutes later, Roy had fallen asleep as well, exhaustion from the current emergency finally taking over and pulling him into a blissful, dreamless sleep.

A few hours later, he woke up, unsure as to why, he turned his head to assess the situation. He was still in his armchair in his living room and the Fullmetal Alchemist was still sleeping on his couch.

Said teen was apparently what had woken him up.

Ed tossed and turned around and muttered something under his breath, Roy couldn't understand. From the looks of it, the kid had a nightmare. He quickly went over to Ed and lightly touched his shoulder. He was afraid, Ed had developed a fever or infection, but his temperature seemed to be normal. It seemed to be just a normal nightmare after all.

Still, this kind of stress and movement couldn't be goof for the kids injuries and recovery. He gave Ed's shoulder a light squeeze to wake him up, this however didn't get a response out of the sleeping teen.

He tried again, this time with a little more force ''Come no Fullmetal, wake up!''

No response.

''N-nooo…. Mom, Al I-I'm sorry, p-pleas forgive m-me…'' So this was, what he was dreaming about.

''Hey Ed, it's alright, Al's fine, Just… Wake UP!''.

With a start, Ed was awake. Wide golden Eyes scanned the room, Panicked searching for something, trying to remember where he was and what had happened. After a few seconds, his breathing calmed and he seemed to be more aware of his surroundings.

''Hey Fullmetal, you Okay?'' short silence, then a nod. ''Do you want to talk about it?'' Ed shook his head. ''S'okay, nothing unusual'' the boy said and laid back down. ''Go back to sleep Colonel''.

''You know, it might help if you'd talk about it''.

At first, Ed kept silent. Roy was already considering what to do if he didn't open up, not that there was a lot he could do, but he still wanted to help. Suddenly, the boy started talking softly.

''It's always the same… First mom, then Al, they're both dead because of me. And then Nina, I couldn't help her and… I-I just..''

''You know that nothing of this was your fault right?'' he didn't get a response. ''Come on Fullmetal The Illness wasn't your fault, you didn't kill Al and You were not the one to turn Nina into that chimera and-''

''Shut up! That Al's the way he is IS my fault and if I just had been a bit faster, if I just had studied harder, I could have saved Nina and Mom… I...I… There should have been something I could have done but I still…''

Now there were tears running down the young alchemists face. Roy didn't know what to do, he was generally bad with children as well as providing emotional comfort. So he did the only thing he could think of right now. He sat down next to Ed end carefully placed his arms around the trembling child before him. ''Shhh it's alright, It wasn't your fault, there was nothing you could have done, you were just a small child...Shhh''.

Slowly, Ed calmed down and after a while, his breathing had evened out some, he had fallen back asleep. Roy glanced at the watch above his fireplace. It was already five-thirty am. He figured going to sleep himself would be pointless like this and decided to get up and get an early breakfast started. ''Some relaxing evening that turned out to be'' he grumbled while carefully laying Edward back down on the couch and getting up.''And I still need to find out what exactly happend to him last night'.

After some coffee and toast, he had nothing better to do then to read and wait for his young charge to wake up.

At seven-thirty, he decided it was time to wake the kid, no matter if he wanted to wake up or not.

He went to the couch and was about to shake Edwards shoulder to wake him up again, when he noticed that this was quite unnecessary. A pair of golden orbs looked sleepily up at him and then blinked a few times to get the sleep out of them.

''Good, you're awake''.

''Yeah, sorry about last night''

Roy's and Ed's eyes met for a brief moment and they both knew that he wasn't talking about stumbling into Roy's house last night and cover everything in his blood. Roy nodded.

''It's quite alright, but now you need to get up, eat something and tell me what exactly happened to you yesterday. The only thing you manged to tell me was 'chimera', you were apparently to out of it to tell me anything else. Also, I need to check on your injuries, how's your head?'' He got a shrug as a response to his question, then, Ed nodded and tried to get up. When he was sitting on the edge of the sofa however, he began to feel dizzy and laid back down. ''Urghh… I don't feel to good…''

''Well, that doesn't surprise me, you did loose quite the amount of blood, you know? You also have quite the knot on your head''. Ed just grunted as a response. ''Lay back down, I'm going to bring you some Toast and orange juice, the we can talk''. Ed just nodded and with some difficulty and a few pained whimpers, he tried to hide from Roy, Ed managed to re-position himself back onto the couch comfortably.

Roy returned with his breakfast an an extra pitcher with water and set those items down on the coffee table. He handed Ed toast and juice and let him eat in peace. After Edward had finished, Roy refilled his gals with some water, since he remembered how important it was to get enough fluids after loosing large amounts of blood, and sat down on the other end of the sofa. ''Now then, care to tell me, why you turned up, covered in blood, at my doorstep last night? And where is Alphonse? He'd normally never let you run around alone at night''

Ed took a deep breath and started telling Roy how their current predicament came to pass…

Last evening:

Ed and Al were walking towards the train station. They had just returned from followin up on another false lead to the Philosophers Stone and had agreed on that some vacation or at leas a little down time was in order for them to get back their strength. Alphonse had decided to go back to Resembool for a weak or two, Ed had wanted to come to, but he had to turn in his report and maybe get a new mission for when they got back.

The next train out of town would depart at ten pm , Alphonse was about to take that one to go to the countryside. After quickly turning in his report and receiving his orders concerning the chimera case, they were walking towards the station. The new mission prevented ed from going, however Alphonse should still be going and having some fun.

''Are you sure you'll be okay on your own brother?'' Asked Al, while the two of them walked down the street. ''This case sounds pretty dangerous, it might be better if I stayed to help you''.

''Don't worry Al'' the small blonde replied ''I'll be fine, it's just one chimera and besides, you have been looking forward to visit Winry and Granny for quite some time now. I'll catch up as soon as I'm done here''.

Alphonse however was still worried when he got onto the train about half an hour later. He watched his brother wave goodbye as the train left the station. The suit of armor shook his head and turned to look out the window. He still was very worried. _I sure hope brother will be alright, he's always so reckless. Well, at least he'll be working with the colonel and his team on this, they might actually be capable of keeping him from_ _d_ _oing something stupid this time._ With thoughts like these in his head, he drove further and further away from town.

Meanwhile, Ed was walking back to the military dorms. He was under strict orders, not to investigate alone under any circumstances alone and for once, he intended to obey the order. (The reason for that being Lieutenant Hawkeye and her gun who had stood right behind him while he had received his orders).

''Oh well'' he sighted ''at least Al is going to have some free time, I just hope he'll be fine without me. I shouldn't worry about him, he'll be having Granny, Winry and Den around''. With a genuine smile on his face, he continued his walk and just wondered about, how he was to catch that blasted chimera, when he passed a dark alley. Normally, he wouldn't have paid it any mind, now however he stopped dead in his tracks.

There was something large moving around in the shadows, He'd be having thought it to be just some homeless guy, if it weren't for the growling and snarling that came from the dark figure in the shadows.

''Hey'' he called out. The same moment he did, it crossed his mind that it may not have been such a good idea to draw attention to himself. ''Damn'' he muttered and backed of a few steps. Too late however, the beast had noticed him already and stepped out into the glow of the street lanterns.

It had a huge, muscular, cat like body that was mostly covered in scales. Its four huge paws were sporting long, elegantly curved claws. The Chimera also had a long tail with spikes running along its tip. The head was made up of a crocodile like snout, bright yellow eyes with slitted pupils and topped with a pair of pointed ears. The most impressive part about it however were the two feathered, black wings sticking out from it's back.

Edward was sure those were not just for show, and was proven right, when the beast leaped into the air and came at him, flapping wings, outstretched claws and gaping mouth full of razor sharp yellow teeth, waiting to rip him into tiny pieces.

He quickly stumbled back a few steps and clapped his hands. With the familiar bright flash of alchemy, his right arm transformed into a sharp blade. Ed slashed at the chimeras head, the beast however dodged and suddenly, was out of his field of vision. The next thing he knew was something big slamming into him from behind and a searing pain across his back. The force of the impact threw him onto the ground, where he hit his head on the curb. Blood was leaking into his eye as he staggered back to his feet and turned around to face his opponent again.

The chimera growled and lunged again. This tine, opting for a direct hit. Edward manged to dodge , the claws just scraping at his side. He slashed his blade over the creatures shoulder and managed to make a shallow cut. ''Damn it'' he muttered ''those scales aren't just for show then!''

He managed to strike the beast again, this time in one of his hind legs, this victory however was short lived, when the chimera turned and hit him square in the chest with its tail, howling in pain. He was smacked into a lamp post, already feeling a lump develop on the back on his head from this impact. He slipped down to the floor and the next thing he knew, there was a heavy weight pressing down on his chest, he yelped when he heard a crack and a hot pain shot though his chest. When he managed to open his eyes, he saw the chimera holding him down with one paw, while leaning down and biting into his leg.

Edward screamed in pain as he felt those teeth digging into his flesh, felt the beasts hot breath as it tried to take another one of his limbs away from him. In that moment, he wasn't looking at the chimera anymore, but at a transmutation circle and a mutilated bleeding lump of flesh in the middle of it, feeling the pain of loosing his limbs all over again. His body went completely slack, as he continued to stare into the abyss of his own memories.

His attacker however was confused by his sudden lack of response, thinking it's prey had died already. Ed felt the pressure on his leg lessen, the pain subsided and his head cleared for a moment. Reflexively, he struck out with his blade and caught the chimera in its more soft and sensitive underbelly. The animal howled in pain, as it leapt away from him, letting him catch his breath and crawl a few paces away from that monster in front of him.

The chimeras agonized screams got more quiet and infrequent by the second as the beast retreated into the shadow of the alleyway it had come from, where it suddenly collapsed and then lay still, not moving, not breathing.

For a few minutes, Ed just sat in the middle of the street, trying to get his bearings and formulating a plan of what to do next. He was still shocked about the whole incident and in his head, he still held the picture of that transmutation circle and the almost dead and bloody mass in front of him, he had turned his mother into. Taking deliberately calm and even breaths helped to clear his head and begin to think straight.

First ho took stock of his injuries and capability of movement. There was pain from a lot of different places on his body, a lot of blood as well, though he was sure that it didn't all belong to him. He felt quite dizzy, if from those blows he had received to the head of from bloodloss, he didn't know.

When he got up, he used a lamp post to steady himself. When he was confident in his ability to walk, he first decided to check on the chimera down in the alleyway. When Edward had confirmed it was really dead, he sealed of the alley. He couldn't risk anyone accidentally finding this creature, after all, it was part of a military investigation. Using alchemy in his current state however did prove to be quite difficult. He had difficulty focusing ad had to try a few times before he was able to create a couple of walls that wouldn't collapse at the slightest impact.

His work complete, he debated on what to do next. Going to a hospital was, of course, out of the question. Al wasn't here, so he wouldn't be any help to him now. He thought about the members of Mustang's team. Fury would probably pass out, the second he saw his blood covered clothes, he had no idea where Fallman and Breda lived and lieutenant Hawkeye was the only one who could force him to go to a hospital against his will. Of course there was always Havoc, he was a trained medic after all and would normally be the best choice in this kind of situation. The only problem was, he lived on the other end of town and Ed wasn't sure, he could make it this far. That only left one other option ''Damn it, why him'' he growled and began his slow and painful walk towards Colonel Roy Mustangs house.

Back at Roy's: 

''So basicly, you solved the case by accident and managed to kill the evidence in the process'' was all Roy could manage at the end of Edwards insane tail. ''You really have the worst luck, don't you?''

''No kidding'' the blond teen replied, then yawned . ''Please don't tell Al about this, I want him to have some peace and quiet without having to worry about me. If he hears what happened, he'll come running back here immediately, even though he was looking forward to spending time back home with Granny and Winry and-'' his sentence was cut short by another huge yawn.

''Don't worry, I won't. Now that I have a clear picture of what happened, you can go back to sleep. I'll let the command center know to send out someone to retrieve the body, so you can relax''. When he turned to leave, Edward was already half asleep. On his way out, he heard a quiet noise, and if he wasn't mistaken, it sounded suspiciously like a quiet ''Thank you'' coming from somewhere under the blanket on his couch.


End file.
